Your 2008 Toronto Blue Jays!

[Crash Davis]

Noteables.
Added: David Eckstein, Marco Scutaro, Scott Rolen, Rod Barajas
Dropped: Troy Glaus, Josh Towers



Around the Horn Outfielders (toronto) From MLB.com


http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/news...=.jsp&c_id=tor

[theaub]

I was waiting for someone to put this out...I made the last two ones and since we didn't make the playoffs in either year I figured someone else should do it lol.

In what is a shameless plug for my dynasty story, I'll be putting out a 30-part, in-depth, 25,000 word (maybe more, who knows?) preview on the Blue Jays, of which you can find by checking out the link below. Why, you ask? Well, first of all, and most importantly, since I've applied for a Job as an intern in the Jays front office this year, I figure I should get to know the organization a little better. Secondly, I'm submitting this to an undisclosed site for publication. And thirdly, its fun to learn about players. Since its 30 parts, and I'd like to have it all closed off by mid-March, I'll release stuff every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, which will mean that the preview will be finished on March 28th.

Right now, parts one and two are up, and the roster is upcoming for the next, uh, 21 parts (lol, when I said it was in-depth, I wasn't lying) to come throughout the next month and a half. That'll be followed by a look at the minors, managment, stadium, schedule and finally my final thoughts and conclusions. I hope everyone here reads it and doesn't hesitate to give feedback. Thanks!

[SPTO]

theaub i'll definitely be reading your thoughts. I think you're one of the smarter Jays fans here. Although we disagree with some things I think in the end we'll have the same guarded optimism for this team.

Anyways i'm really looking forward to the season. I just hope the hitting can rebound.

[theaub]

Guarded optimism sums up the team this year. I mean if everything goes right they could win 95 games, but if the pitching falters and the hitting stays the same as last year this team will be lucky to win 75. I've never seen such a drastic swing in both team hitting and team pitching in one season.

[SPTO]

LOL!

I bet Rod Barajas feels like a fool as the Jays were willing to overpay him and he went to the Phils instead. Now he's signed a 1 yr deal with an option for '09 at 1.2 mil.

At least he'll be a solid backup to Zaun.

[theaub]

Beats Sal Fasano, thats for sure.

[Crash Davis]

Good stuff ill keep an eye out, thats awesome how you might get an intern job... im jelous if u could swing me a job thats at least higher than a vendor let me know im only in guelph its not that hard to commute lol

[Crash Davis]

Is there any shot Barajas becomes 1st string? I just really dont have faith in zaun something about him just shouts out failure to me, I cant even picture him starting and winning a World Series (i know FLA) but i still cant picture him being the catcher running upto the pitcher after a strikeout and what not he'd probably throw his back out

[theaub]

As you can see by my piece on Zaun today, I disagree with your sentiments. However, I'll add a little more info here.

Zaun's CERA vs Team ERA
2004 (97 GP): 4.76/4.91 (0.15 difference)
2005 (132 GP): 3.79/4.06 (0.27 difference)
2006 (72 GP): 4.34/4.37 (0.03 difference)
2007 (103 GP): 3.55/4.00 (0.45 difference)

So in the four years that Zaun has played in Toronto, pitchers ERA when he was behind the plate has always been lower than when he wasn't. And on the flip side, you have to think that the difference is doubled (since the ERA has to be equally higher when Zaun wasn't behind the plate to even out). So when he played 132 games in 2005, for the ERA to still be 0.27 runs off his CERA, the CERA of other catchers had to be something like 4.80, and last year it had to be something like 4.70. That means that the true difference between Zaun and his backup was about a run in 2 of the last 3 years. That is very impressive.

[SPTO]

A couple notes

- BJ Ryan will be throwing off a mound on Monday. It'll be the first time he's done so since May 10th. The Jays are going to bring him along as slowly as possible.

- JP Ricciardi when asked about the 5th Starter spot is saying he thinks Jannsen can be the guy to fill that role. (big mistake IMO) I don't know why JP is going against Gibbons and the common sense reality that Casey is doing just fine as a back end reliever. Let's hope JP doesn't throw his weight around and force Gibbons into making that stupid move.